Gallica Chronicles: The Imperial Armada
by BandGeek99
Summary: Matt Ishida, an ordinary guard, found that there were many reasons he hated his job. One, guarding a princess was no fun. Two, he often did stupid things to save stupid people. And three, he wanted nothing to do with Tobias Daniels and the Sakura Brigade.
1. Prologue

Gallica Chronicles

**BandGeek99: Hey, everybody! Guess what? I'm not dead yet! I've just been hiding under my little rock writing Fullmetal Alchemist fiction and watching Death Note like a maniac. *smiles innocently***

**The Deimon Commander From Hell: WHERE THE HELL DID YOU COME FROM, ARUYO?**

**Depthmon: …dude. You were the one who asked her to write the fic.**

**TDCFH: *blinks* Oh, that's right, aru. *holds up Devil's Handbook* That didn't just happen.**

**BG99: Please, let's keep all the authors alive for ten minutes, for once…**

**Depthmon: But what's an author's note without a little bit of murder?**

**BG99: Safe, that's what.**

**TDCFH: As much as I hate admitting it, aru, she's got a point. I can't kill either of you until this fic is done, aruyo.**

**BG99: That's right, Digi-Fiction nation! :D This is a **_COLLAB FIC_** between The Deimon Commander from Hell, Depthmon, and myself! TDCFH has already posted his part as I publish this, so go read that, too. Depthmon's should be out within the next couple of weeks.**

**Reviews on all three author's stories are appreciated. They all focus on different characters, all the while everything goes down in all three stories.**

**TDCFH: We don't own Digimon, aru. We just enjoy messing with the characters, aruyo.**

**Depthmon: That being said, don't sue, because none of us have the money to pay for a lawsuit.**

**BG99: This whole idea was concocted by the Deimon Commander himself. All credit for the premise goes to him.**

**As for the way Tobias refers to his parents… I just… It just kinda happened that way. I call my mom "Mam" sometimes because of my lazy, lazy dialect, and we call my great-uncle Pa instead of his actual name. I just kinda liked it this way and it stuck.**

**Also: For whatever reason, I imagine this kinda steampunk-y. So Victorian Era style, I guess. Maybe. Ehh, I dunno anymore.**

**Reviews, critique, etc are, as always, muchly appreciated! Please enjoy and stick around for future chapters!**

**

* * *

**_Prolouge_

The Imperial Armada is a bloodthirsty country. I am unashamed to say this, regardless of my citizenship and begrudging allegiance. Their warships are killing machines, built bigger and stronger and faster and deadlier each time we discover more ways to slaughter. While some people might obsess over cars nowadays, the citizens of the Armada obsessed over tanks. A boy or girl on the schoolyard might decide that growing up to be a doctor or a teacher is boring—they want to join the military and save the country.

The Parlt River battle was one of the largest conflicts during the entirety of this war. It was under the previous Czar's rule, Czar James Walters, and was a surprise ambush onto Federation territory. It was this battle that would destroy families, livelihoods, and homes.

How, you wonder? Well. How about I tell you a story?

One upon a time, there was a little boy named Toby. Toby's family had lived on the outskirts of the Armada's territory for decades. The border there had hardly changed at all. They had a farm where the forest met the Parlt River and made a living raising and selling crops and livestock. Toby's father and mother knew of the war carrying on with the Federation, but never dreamed that their family would be dragged into it more-so than they already were.

Toby had two older brothers, Radcliffe and Grint. The two of them decided that they didn't want to live on a farm in the boonies for their entire lives and left to gain some glory and get in on the action by joining the military. They didn't really hear from them much for the next three years or so. Toby was only eight when they left, but he could remember that his mother and father were torn up about it. To them, he guessed, it seemed like they wanted nothing to do with their parents or brother anymore. He just didn't understand what was happening.

Then, out of the blue, Radcliffe sent them a letter on April seventeenth.

_Dearest Mam, Pa, and my darling demon brother Toby,  
_

_I just found out that we're going to be stationed in Brookdale, just a town over from you guys! Figured I should let you know now so that when I show up, Mam doesn't die of a heart attack. And so that Toby doesn't run at me screaming obscenities that Grint taught him. (You don't honestly think he learned any of those words from __**me**__, do you? I'm the good son here!)_

_I was just recently promoted, too! I'm now a second lieutenant. Grint's still a sergeant, he's kind of mad that I totally blew past him. He'll catch up, though, I'm sure of it._

_Toby, if you know what's good for you, you'll never, __**ever**__ join the army. Got it? Stay home and be a farmer. It's a regular sausage-fest out here, we barely get a chance to talk to any girls. Or, well, any cute ones that don't own a gun. (Snipers are scary, scary women when they're angry. You never know when they're gonna take a shot at you while you're asleep in your barracks, a creepy thought.)_

_I don't really have a lot of time, so I'm gonna have to wrap up now. I love you all. And so does Grint, even though he's too damn lazy to write a letter of his own._

_I'll see you soon! Keep your eyes peeled for the 8__th__ Squadron!_

_Yours,  
Radcliffe_

Sure enough, just as he'd written it, Toby's brothers were stationed in less than a fortnight a town away. The first weekend they were there, they went out of their way to stop by, visiting with Mam and Pa and entertaining the boy with stories from the city. They didn't stay for longer than two hours, but it was one of the few happy memories with them that their little brother had.

Actually, it was the last happy memory he had involving his entire family.

It only took two weeks, but once it began, it began. The Federation troops marched right for the borders, and, of course, Toby's farm. There wasn't really any way that the family could have gotten away; the car was a piece of shit, and the journey to the nearest "safe" area was far too long and crossed too many mountains to take a cattle-drawn wagon or something. Besides, Mam and Pa decided they wouldn't leave the farm, no matter what, and decided that Toby would be safer with them than anywhere else.

The war stayed away for a while, remaining mostly as skirmishes to the west of the farm. The family didn't worry too much, continuing on with their daily lives, until the Imperial 4th Division marched to the edge of the Parlt River, on the other side of the bridge, and set up camp.

Toby's Mam and Pa were worried. They hadn't expected the war to come so close to the farm. However, the commander of the squad that was stationed at the water's edge assured them that they would be safe, that having a group of soldiers on the Parlt River, so close to the border, was just a precaution.

Pa didn't believe that for one minute and did everything but pack up his wife and son, leaving the farm to fend for itself. He planned a getaway, just in case the fighting came closer and their lives were in jeopardy.

That day came far sooner than anyone in the small family was expecting. Not even six days after the assurance from the commander, a single cannon fire was heard before all hell broke loose on the farm. Soldiers from both sides came dangerously close to the house. Three days went on and the fighting only escalated. Federation troops had begun taking down anyone in their path and Tobias' parents feared that they would be next, and so grabbed their young son and hid in the root cellar. There, they thought, they would be safe.

This false hope lasted them merely an hour. A small group of enemy troops had invaded the house, knowing full well that someone was inside, as they had not seen hide nor hair of Tobias' father that morning, when he should have been running to town to pick up fresh groceries or something of the like. The house didn't have very many hiding places in the long run, not any place big enough to hide two full-grown adults and a child. The cellar was the last place they checked, and found the family cowering.

"_You're coming with us,"_ a soldier said, smirking darkly. _"We will give you no chance to send word to your precious military. We have no reason to let you live; this is Federation territory now."_

Two other soldiers grasped Tobias' parents firmly and forced them up the cellar stairs as the first grabbed Toby's wrist and yanked him up the stairs, following his fellow soldiers' example.

The family was led outside and to the far end of the barn, where as they drew closer, they could see a large pile of the Imperial Armada's uniforms, as well as two sacks hanging from tree branches. Tobias was curious as to what they were doing there.

Upon closer inspection however, he noticed that they were _not_ sacks hanging from the tree. The two _somethings_ were his elder brothers, not long dead. A noose had been secured around each of their necks. He stopped in his tracks, letting out a terrified whimper.

"_Move, boy."_ The soldier who had taken a grip on his arm shoved him forward, causing the small boy to stumble.

By this time, Mam and Pa had noticed that it was Radcliffe and Grint strung up on the old oak branches. They also realized that the pile of uniforms was a pile of deceased Imperial soldiers. They screamed for Tobias to run and yanked themselves away from the two soldiers holding them captive, taking off for the far end of the farm.

Two shots. Two shots was all it took. As if in a dream, Tobias heard the deafening cracks of gunfire, watched helplessly as two speeding bullets implanted themselves in his mother and father's heads. The Federation really wasn't kidding around, were they, he thought bitterly.

It took him all of five seconds to register what had just happened and for his instincts to kick in. Tobias knew he had to run away and make it to the other side of the Laws Bridge. It was the only bridge that crossed the Parlt for a good fifty miles in either direction. On the other side of that bridge were two things: town and Imperial soldiers. If he could get word to them, then everything would be alright.

Federation soldiers, not finding it difficult to gather what he was thinking, chased after him, armed to the teeth as though he were a deadly assassin instead of an eleven-year-old farm boy.

Tobias ran. He didn't know where he was going. He didn't know what he would do once he got there. He knew that he needed to get away, his parents had told him to get away, he had to tell the army, they needed to know…! He pumped his arms harder and sped off as fast as his thin legs could take him, flying towards the forest. A sudden thought occurred to him: what if he had to swim the river? It stood to reason that the Federation's troops would know that he was running for his life, probably going to alert the Armada's militia on the other side of the Parlt. It was certain they'd collapse the bridge. Their numbers were already dwindling severely, and Tobias could only guess the number of dead soldiers on the Armada's end of things.

He bolted through the forest, somehow managing to reach the river's edge with only a few throbbing cuts on his ankles and arms. Around the bend in the river to the North, he could just barely see a man scrambling onto the bridge. Judging from his uniform, Tobias assumed him to be a Federation commander of some kind, a captain or a major, perhaps. Fearing the worst, Toby threw himself into the river. If the man blew up the bridge, then all of the debris would flow downstream, and that would certainly hinder his escape.

Paddling helplessly for all he was worth, Toby was able to dog paddle to the other end of the river in time to see the Federation man light an explosive. His eyes wide, he watched the strong wood-and-iron bridge fall to pieces in a flash of light, then ran away towards where he knew the road to town was at the other end of the forest.

It was too much. He'd watched too much in the past hour than any boy his age should ever have to see in their entire life.

He found the nearest squadron of soldiers and, screaming and sobbing, demanded that they do something about the Federation troops on his family's farm. The commander of the group sneered at him and told him to, and I quote, "Bugger off and find someone who cares".

Tobias was distraught. An entire squadron of the Armada's 4th Division was _dead_, along with his mother and father and his brothers. At the edge of the river, he could see smoke drifting above the trees where he knew his family's property was. The fields had been set on fire, as well as the house. There would be nothing left.

It was that day, six years and four months ago, that Tobias lost all faith in his country and saw it for what it really was: a war-hungry monster.

Fast forward a bit. Toby is now seventeen, two months away from his eighteenth birthday and the inevitable draft. He lives in the nation's capital, a port city on the Eastern Coast of the Imperial Armada, and dreams of roaming the seas, finding new places far away from his bloodthirsty nation. He's a decent cook, but has zero people skills. His focus and intelligence earned him a scholarship to a prestigious academy, where he's in the same year and most classes of Hikari Ikari, the only daughter of Czar Katsutoshi Ikari. He has few close friends, the only one worth mentioning: Matt Ishida, son of one of the Czar's guard from an Imperial territory to the distant east.

Tobias had two months left of his youth, and then he was to be drafted to fight in a seemingly unnecessary war, a war that served no purpose to the citizens of the Federation or to the Armada.

How do I happen to know all this, you wonder?

Simple.

My name is Tobias Daniels.

And this is where it all began.

* * *

**Bah. War. How I cannot write it.**

**Yeah, Toby's an OC. I promise that the next chapter will have some Hikari in it :) Yaaay, someone you all know! *cheers***

**Like I said before, reviews and critique are loved. They will help me make it through the first week (er... two days...) of school this week!**

**Thanks for reading, go read TDCFH's and Depthmon's parts, once they're both up!**

**Love and cookies from a sunny little-out-of-the-way-place-that-nobody-goes boonie town in the sticks,  
BandGeek99  
**


	2. Part I: In which TK is Covered in Glue

**Oh. My. God. I am a horrible human being.**

**The Deimon Commander From Hell: I'll say, aru. I asked for this chapter in _September_, aruyo!**

**BG: I know, I know...**

**For those who don't know, I had some friend/school-related drama, then the school play, and then my computer fried. In the good spirit of Christmas, my father got it repaired for me and I was able to salvage and finish this chapter.**

**So we finally get to see Matt in this chapter! Whoot!**

**Please leave a review and check out TDCFH's part of the story when you can!**

**Enjoy!**

**I don't own anything except what you don't recognize. Concept is the sole property of TDCFH. I just get to play with it.

* * *

**Chapter 1

It was times like these that made Matt Ishida hate his job.

Seriously. He sat around doing one of the world's most uneventful jobs for the country's most boring person at the world's most boring building.

He was a guard to a princess at school. Really? Did it GET any more boring than that? There was absolutely nothing for him to do during the day, other than stand outside of the princess' classrooms and count floor tiles. And when he was done counting floor tiles, he counted ceiling tiles. And when he finished that, he started the whole thing over again. Every day for a hundred and eighty-two days out of his year. He loathed it.

He sighed and slumped against the wall behind him, breaking his tough countenance. His feet were killing him. Why'd he have to volunteer for this, again…?

Oh, that's right. He didn't. His father did it for him. Bastard.

He idly glanced around the bland hallway of the academy, looking for anything to distract him. The only remotely interesting happening was two girls, probably in their eleventh or twelfth grades.

"…and he totally blew me off to go hang with this _Martha_ chick," the first, a tall ginger said, pausing in the application of eyeliner. "And then has the gall to say that it wasn't really even a date, that they just went to watch the sunset together."

"That jerk!" the other, a stumpy-looking blonde, replied. "That's _totally_ a date! Luckly, Jason won't _ever_ think of doing that to _me_."

"Jason, the guy from that theatre, Jason?"

"Yep."

"You big slut! Good for you!" This was followed by an excited squealing sound.

Matt rolled his eyes. It figured. Every single girl he'd seen at the school was exactly the same; rich and dumb.

They chattered on and threw him a seductive wink as they passed. He didn't respond with anything other than a nod of the head and a tight smile.

The two girls thought this to be the highlight of their day, easily, and squealed again, hissing about the "cute blond soldier" that had "totally just flirted" with them. _And this,_ Matt thought to himself, _is why I can never even think about dating a women. Urgh._

He checked his watch. Twelve more minutes until the bell rang and he would get to go home.

Matt was an Imperial Guard of the Czar's daughter, Hikari Ikari. He had been trained for it all his life and had taken up the position only a year and a half prior. In that time, he had managed to stop two attempts at kidnapping and one at assassination; it was safe to say he was damned good at what he did. However, as the young lady wasn't even seventeen yet, it meant that Matt was forced to follow her from classroom to classroom at school, from school to home, and from venue to venue when she went out with her friends. Though his job was important, he supposed, it had to be the most boring thing on the planet on a day-to-day basis. Seriously.

However good at it he was, Yamato Ishida was not cut out for being a bodyguard. He was easily distracted, he was thin and rather lithe, unlike the brawny men that made up his fellow guards, and he had poor aim. He ought to have been shipped off to the frontlines with the rest of the men his age, and he would have, if Hikari had not spoken up and insisted that he be her bodyguard. Per order of the Czarina herself, Matt was made an Imperial Guard instead of being sent to boot camp.

Soon, muffled chatter and the scraping of chairs on linoleum escaped the classroom behind him. Matt sighed in relief. Finally, time to go.

The bell rang, right on cue, and the door practically exploded open, giving way to a sea of students. Matt watched carefully for a single head of black hair amongst blonds, brunets, and redheads, and when he spotted it, he pulled its owner aside.

The owner in question was sixteen year old Hikari Ikari, the daughter of the ruler of the Imperial Armada. She smiled at her bodyguard happily, revealing slightly crooked teeth. Her green eyes glittered happily. "Hello, Yamato," she said cheerily.

"Are you ready?" he asked stoically.

"Yes, I am. Let's go," she said brightly, grabbing his arm and hauling him off down the hallway.

Hikari was one of those rare people that could do whatever she pleased and get away with it, not only because of her father's position, but because she was just so damned _cute_. The eldest Ishida son found himself falling victim to the extreme amount of adorable she radiated and stifled a sigh.

"Doctor Mark blew off one of his eyebrows today," she said happily as they strode down the hallway. "He almost had a heart attack, he was so startled. It was rather amusing."

Matt smirked at the thought of his charge's pompous chemistry teacher getting what was coming to him. Thankfully, he'd only had a handful of encounters with the educator, but the man was a complete _asshole_…

A scream of "Hikari!" snapped him out of his mind and he glanced around, suddenly alert.

A small boy no older than ten was barreling at the princess from across the academy's courtyard, a huge smile on his face and a smudge of charcoal pencil on his nose.

Hikari giggled and held her arms out to him. "Hi, buddy! How was your day?"

He launched himself at his sister and kissed her cheek, inadvertently smearing charcoal on her. "It was good. I finished my art project today."

"How'd that turn out?"

"It's awesome!" And with that, Wilhelm David Ikari launched into an in-depth description of his 50-minute art class.

"Matt, I hope to God Almighty you have some of the good shampoo left."

"Hey, Teeks." Matt's eyes never left his charge as he spoke. "How was your day?"

A nearly identical blond stepped beside him, frowning as he picked at small flecks of paint and paper in his hair. He, too, had charcoal smeared on his nose. "Awful."

"Well, aren't you just Mister Sammy Sunshine, hm?"

"I hate you. Shut up."

Matt smirked and ruffled his younger brother's hair. "Love you too, TK."

The younger blond glared at the elder and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like a particularly bad curse word.

"If you guys would like to catch your ride, we'd better head out front now," Matt said, just loud enough so that the Ikari siblings could hear him.

"Right," Hikari said, straightening and taking her little brother's hand. "Let's go."

The quartet made their way to the lot in front of the school where a large, armored SUV sat idle. The driver was leaning on the front of the vehicle, chatting with one of the academy's students, a brunet with dark eyes and gaunt features. Several soldiers patrolled the area, each sparing the four a glance before returning to whatever duty they had been assigned to carry out.

Matt was just barely able to overhear a conversation between the student and the driver as he climbed into the backseat.

"…gonna make it?"

The student sighed and rubbed his temple with one hand, the other firmly clasped around a small stack of thick books. "I hope so. Do you think it'll work?"

"It'll take a miracle." The driver clapped a hand on his companion's shoulder and gave him a grim smile.

"I'll be okay." The student spoke uneasily, his pale face twisted with a sense of terrified determination. "I'm gonna be okay."

"Alright, if you say so."

Matt called to the student. "Tobias!"

The boy looked up and towards the open window of the SUV. "Eh, Matt?"

"Take care of yourself, you hear? I don't wanna see you getting hurt." Translation, 'I'll meet you later, we need to talk.'

"Yeah, yeah." Translation, 'You asshole, now you tell me!'

The driver glanced from the soldier to the student, shook his head, and climbed into the car without another word.

* * *

TK growled in frustration as he struggled with a particularly difficult lob of glue in his hair. "Come on," he muttered to no one. "Don't make me cut you out of here, man…" Takeru was typically a very laid-back, easygoing person, but when it came to his hair, he was exactly like his brother; it was perfect or the world was going to end.

And that meant no glue gobbing up his perfect layers. Or blood would abound.

The younger was currently ridding his hair of his charge's art supplies. While Wilhelm was a very shy boy with a gentle and soft-spoken disposition, he was very, _very_ messy. It only got worse when you handed him paints, glue, and glitter.

So much worse.

"TK, are you done yet? I wanna shower, too, you know!"

"Shut up, Matt, I'm busy!" the younger called, finally ridding his hair of the last of the glue. The water pounded down on him and he gave a quiet sigh of content, reveling in the warmth of the steam. He knew he shouldn't stay in the shower too long; the radon from the well was probably all around him by now. (That's what the palace got for being built in a world-renowned granite supply region.)

Every day things got more and more stressful. The war with the Confederation was picking up and intensifying dramatically. He was constantly on his guard; anyone close to the Czar was in danger. This meant that the guard surrounding the royal family tightened and grew tenser as the months wore on.

Takeru hated it.

He, much like his brother, was not cut out to be a bodyguard. He hated fighting and violence of any kind; he was capable of killing a man with one hand and he _hated_ himself for it. He was seventeen, technically not legally allowed to enlist for the armed forces; he oftentimes wondered how he'd ended up where he was.

Oh, right. His father. Big fucking surprise.

"Ta. Ke. Ru. You seriously have five seconds dude before I come in there and shove you out."

"Fine, fine, shut up, Matt…" TK turned the faucet to "off" and grabbed the towel on the rack just outside the shower, hastily wrapping it around his person. He whipped the door open to find an agitated looking Yamato, whose eye was twitching in annoyance. "All yours."

"If you killed the hot water, you're dead meat."

TK just waved a hand in dismissal as he meandered down the hall towards his room.

The Ishida brothers were fortunate enough to have their own private apartment off of the main palace. There were three bedrooms; one for each brother and a third rarely occupied room for their elusive father, who never seemed to be home. Both brothers were grateful for this and oftentimes took advantage, having "wild raving parties" that really just consisted of the two brothers and occasionally the Czarina sitting around, sipping beers and watching bad horror films.

TK kicked the door to his room shut behind him and hastened to his bureau. He yanked out a pair of boxers and a pair of flannel pajama pants and pulled them on hastily before fishing for a tee shirt. Hastily, he towel dried his hair and brushed it quickly before curling up in his bed, staring at the photograph on his bedside table.

In the photograph was a much younger Takeru, his brother, and another set of siblings, a boy and a girl. The boy was smiling stupidly and had a pair of goggles abandoned around his neck, the girl smiling innocently with a whistle dangling from a necklace. He couldn't for the life of him remember the other siblings' names; all he remembered was day after day of playing with him in his childhood. He wondered where they ended up and wondered if they remembered him, too.

Those thoughts filling his uneasy head, the blond rolled over and fell asleep.

* * *

"Have you finished the preparations?"

"Yes, sir. Everything will go as planned."

"Are you sure? I don't want anyone else to get hurt just _him_."

"Please, leave it to us. I can assure you, _they_ will be fine."

"You had better be damned sure."

"I am, sir."

"Good. I shall not speak with you again, then, until after."

"Yes, sir."

"Goodnight, Dobbs."

"Goodnight, sir."

And with a smirk on his face, Dominic Ikari, eldest son of Katsutoshi Ikari, smirked smugly as he hung up the phone, feeling more cheerful than he had in ages.

* * *

**I can haz review nao?**


	3. Part II: In which there is a chase

**This chapter was a long time in the making. Urgh. I'm sorry.**

**Orimura Ichika: You should be, aru! I had to hound you and hound you and hound you to finally finish it, aruyo!**

**BG: Don't eat meeee~!**

**Orimura Ichika: I won't eat you, aru. Don't be dumb. I have better things to do with my time, aruyo.**

**BG: *is not convinced* Okay...  
**

******Orimura Ichika: Unfortunately, Depthmon was unable to write with us after all, aru, so...**

**BG: Keep an eye out for the third part of this story, which will be written by the lovely and talented emichii! :D**

**And now, please enjoy the chapter!**

* * *

Raymond Alexander shifted uncomfortably amongst the masses of the city, not feeling their excitement or disdain for the Imperial Czar's visit. He had a job to do, and if anyone found out what that job _was_, well… That could be problematic.

Alexander could hear the low rumble of marching soldiers coming from the east end of the street, and he hastily began to make his way over. His hands held the bag in his hands carefully to his chest, and he winced every time the package was jostled. As soon as he reached the edge of the crowd, he opened the bag ever so slightly and peer into it.

A bomb waited patiently to detonate.

The man gulped. This was his first time carrying out an actual job; he usually was the person taking the orders and learning about the clientele. He was a reedy, weak man; he couldn't hold a gun to save his life. He was in his late thirties and carried a few extra pounds around the middle; he couldn't run if he was caught. All he had was his head, and if that failed him, then there was no escaping his fate from this one.

Adam Dobbs had called him into duty last week, saying he had an important job to be done. This job came from the Czar's son, Dominic and it was very clear:

At the parade, throw the bomb. Kill Czar Ikari. Leave Dominic's sister and brother untouched.

Alexander only had one chance to do this, and if he screwed it up… He didn't want to think about it.

* * *

Hikari Ikari had never really enjoyed these military parades; even as a child, she didn't like being gawked at, or shouted at, or being the target of flying tomatoes. Her elder brother was always calm and collected, smiling at everyone just like his father did. Her younger brother just gawked and shouted and waved right back. She always felt awkward and uncomfortable in the backseat.

She looked around desperately, trying to find something that would keep her attention.

A bush of brown hair with goggles perched atop made itself apparent to her.

Something in the back of her mind clicked and her eyes widened. There was only one person on Earth, she decided, who could possibly have hair that stuck up in all directions.

It had to be Taichi!

She grinned and stood up as the car neared the square.

"What are you doing?" Yamato hissed, pulling her arm.

"Oh, leave me alone, Matt, I know what I'm doing!" she said happily. "Look!" She pointed at nothing in particular. The instant Matt's head turned, she took the opportunity to jump out of the slow-rolling car. "Taichi!" she called, grinning like an idiot as she ran forward. "It's been a long time!"

The boy with the bush of brown hair looked at her in a mix of surprise and horror…and then took off.

* * *

Several things happened very quickly for Matt Ishida. Hikari was there, then she was shouting, and then she was taking off after something or other in the crowd. "Shit!"

From his seat behind Dominic and Wilhelm (and previously Hikari), TK glanced over at his brother. "Go, you idiot!" He stood and hastily tried to take off after the Czarina, but Matt forced him to sit down.

"I'll go, you need to look after Wilhelm."

"Why should you get all the fun?"

"Stay. Here."

"Yes, sir."

With that final assurance from TK, Matt took off after the Czarina. He pushed past people, carts, animals, and all manner of Imperial soldiers who, like him, were chasing Hikari.

* * *

Raymond Alexander was pushed and shoved as a group of Imperial soldiers, led by a blond teenaged bodyguard, ran past him, after the Czarina.

The bag fell from his hands.

The man watched in horror as the bomb rolled out of the bag, heading straight for a stampede of soldiers...

* * *

Yamato was shoved forward by a loud explosion from behind him. The heat washed over his entire back, and the sheer force caused him to trip and stumble face-first into the dirt of the street.

After a few people had stepped on him, the blond bodyguard tried to get his bearings. He couldn't see any trace of Hikari, not even the soldiers who were also chasing her.

"God damn it all! Fuck, fuck, fuckity fuck!" he cursed, then stood up and took off into a run in the direction Hikari had last been running.

Matt darted between wagons, cars, carts, and people, almost knocking over several crying children. A strangely familiar sight caught his eye, however…

Standing at the curb was a tall, tan teenage boy, probably Matt's age, with a head of bushy brown hair that couldn't be real…

The boy met his gaze and immediately his face broke into a grin. "It's been a while!"

"Tai! What the hell are you doing here, man?" Instantly, the blond ran to him and gave him a bear hug. "Jeez, I haven't seen you in ages! Not since we were, what, seven?"

"Seven? Sounds about right." Tai chuckled and held Matt's shoulder at arm's length. "I was wondering if I'd—" He stopped abruptly, his fingers feeling something on the jacket of his childhood friend's jacket. The grin disappeared and he grabbed the blonde's jacket's shoulder. He looked closer.

Matt wore an Imperial insignia.

Tai let go hastily and fumbled in his pants' pockets. Where was his weapon when he needed it…?

Finally, his fingers wrapped around the butt of a small pistol and he yanked it out of his pocket. He held it up in the light, inches from Matt's face. "You didn't see me."

"What the hell?" In retaliation, Matt reached to his hip and pulled his own Imperial-distributed weapon. "What are you talking about? I don't see you in, what, eleven years and you pull a fucking _gun_ on me! What are you doing?"

"Put down your weapon."

"You put down yours!"

"I'll fire!"

Matt snorted. "You'll fire? Look at you, you don't even know how to hold that thing, let alone fire it."

"It can't be that difficult! I'll do it!"

"You're such an—"

Suddenly, the two boys' little bubble was popped by a bright, feminine voice. "Taichi, what are you doing to Yamato? Why'd you run from me?"

Both males lowered their guns and looked around to see Hikari standing on the curb, watching them with great interest.

"Hikari!" Matt gasped and ran to her, putting his weapon back in its holster. He gripped her shoulders. "What the fuck was that?"

"Watch your mouth!" she scolded gently.

"I'm not kidding, what were you playing at? Did you think you'd be _funny_, running away like that? Did you think it would be _clever_ of you?"

As Matt lectured his charge, Taichi felt a tug on his sleeve. He turned to see Sora standing beside him. "Come on," she hissed. "We need to go! Aoi and the others will be waiting for us."

The brunet nodded and grabbed her open hand. Together, the two of them ran through the streets to the city limits where they knew their comrades would be waiting.

* * *

**So, reviews are appreciated! :D**


End file.
